V. I. Lenin

The Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

JULY 17 (30)–AUGUST 10 (23), 1908

SPEECHES IN THE DEBATE ON THE SECTION
OF THE PARTY PROGRAMME RELATING TO
LABOUR PROTECTION

JULY 31 (AUGUST 13)

Le n i n

does not object to a 42-hour rest but, addressing Lieber, remarks that
the programme speaks of supervision over all industries. An indication of the
actual size will merely restrict the sense. When our programme is a bill we
shall write in the
details.{1}

Iobject to Comrade Lyadov’s =
amendment.{2}His first two
amendments are superfluous, because in our programme we demand labour protection
forallthe branches of the economy and, consequently, for agriculture
as well. As for the third, it applies entirely to the agrarian section and we
shall return to it when debating our draft agrarian programme.

{1}The point at issue is § 2 of the section of the draft programme
dealing with labour protection, which contained a demand for a statutory
weekly period of rest running continuously for at least 36 hours, for
wage-workers of either sex in all branches ofthe national economy. Lyadov proposed that the period should run for
42 hours; Lieber remarked that the programme said nothing about supervision
in small-scale production. Lyadov’s proposal was adopted by the Congress,
and Lieber’s amendment was rejected.

p. 88

{2}The point at issue is § 12 of the section of the draft programme
dealing with labour protection (511 of theIskradraft), which
contained a demand for “supervision by the organs of local
self-government, with the participation of workers’ delegates, over the
sanitary state of the living quarters provided for workers by their
employers, and also over the internal regulations on these premises and the
terms of their lease, to safeguard wage workers against intervention by
employers in their life and activity as private persons and
citizens”. Lyadov motioned the following addenda to this paragraph:

1)agrarian Inspection to be established for supervision over all
agricultural enterprises employing wage labour; 2) points 1–13 of the
section of the programme dealing with labour protection to be extended to
all agriculture with wage labour; 3) tenants holding land as sharecroppers,
or indentured to cultivate the landowner’s land, to be regarded as
wage-workers falling within the province of the agrarian inspection. The
Congress rejected the first two addenda and Lyadov withdrew the third.

p. 88